The wedding dress from Peru

A very special day. Thanks to Bildbolaget Du & VI.

Wedding portraits!

We are so happy about the wonderful photos and portraits taken by Bildbolaget Du & Vi.

En eloge till min syster

Min duktiga syster Julia var med och fotograferade på vårt bröllop!

På hennes fotoblogg Rainfall finns många ljuvliga stunder från vår stora dag förevigade:

Joanna & Héctor del 1

Joanna & Héctor del 2

Vi tackar den duktiga fotografen!

J&H

Memories

Héctor edited this wonderful video from our wedding!
 Thank you Francesco for grabbing the camera!

Thank you!

We are happily married!

 Photo by Daniel Oros.

One month until the wedding!

Wonderful flowers from Héctor.

Bridesmaids sister weekend

What a weekend, again! Summer temperatures in May! My sister visited and the sunshine drenched the city. Julia met her fellow bridesmaids Gloria and Michelle. Julia and I enjoyed the national ballet for free, roamed around the World Village Festival, went shopping, had ice cream, celebrated the eurovision with Gloria's pizza, visited Suomenlinna and so much more. Julia agreed to take some photos of us on Friday night, though we were mostly jumping around during the session.

Perfect clouds heading to Suomenlinna in the ferry, Ben and Jerry's and World Village Festival.

Had to try out my tele zoom on a bird.

Photos by Julia.

Invitations in the mail

We are this happy to announce that the invitations are being mailed out.
Some of you might have gotten yours already :)

3 months until the wedding!

 Only three months until our wedding :) Héctor and I always celebrate the 11th each month, it is our special day. Happy spring!

Macarons!

I just wanted to share these before I go.
Daniela is a scientist. A real Phd one. And she knows how to make heavenly macarons.
Wouldn't they look nice on my thrifted cake/cookie stand?
 *Hint hint*
/Joanna

Daniela's first of May macarons. Words cannot describe them.

Our slighly crooked cake stand and a flower tea pot (I broke the lid in the second hand shop, had to buy it - was cheap)

 

Do it yourself?

I made a heart garland in March, trying to imitate this idea. Took me a while to make a 30 cm long one! And I was hoping on having tons of these, long ones, for the wedding. Oh my. I admire the DIY people. My garland might stay in our kitchen.

Weekend at last. Héctor is working downtown and I am bed chilling, looking out at the pale sky. It must smell nice outside, it rained last night. Taking a look at some easier DIY projects before setting off to a friend's hen party brunch.

Later today: ribbon making, band photo editing for Héctor's upcoming gig with Shred, some writing and possibly a few get-togethers in the night, etc. The laundy has piled up and our vacuum cleaner broke yesterday. But hey, it's Saturday. A calm and nice one.

And yes, we found great clothes for Héctor yesterday. Super handsome.

/Joanna

Mission accomplished

All went well yesterday at our interviews in the catholic church. It was very serious, and very beautiful. Strong. We double checked some formal matters as well. A lot to keep in mind! We even had an idea for a story! Love in the eyes of the lutheran, catholic and ortodox church. To be continued.

Today I brought my dress on the metro and the tram to work since I had an appointment to look for wedding shoes downtown. Not all shops require appointments, but they sure get full on weekends anyhow. Better to go on a week day, even during office hours. Quite the conversation starter carrying around a wrapped up wedding dress!

I found a comfortable, yet beautiful pair of shoes perfect for the dress hemline. I placed an order and will get my size in about 6 weeks. I am sometimes surprised how unflexible the wedding industry can be in Finland, most shops only get shoes once or twice a year, and many of the collections that arrived in January are now short in sizes, since most brides seem to be early birds. I've been looking around quite a few shop.

Tonight it's Hector's turn - Lets see if he finds what he is looking for. According to Peruvian tradition - as far as I've understood it - the groom cannot see the bride in her dress before the wedding, but the bride is allowed to look at the groom's clothes, even help pick them out ;)

I think the dress will spend the weekend all alone here in the office since it needs to be taken downtown again for some small changes, just a few additional hooks here and there needed.
You'll understand why on the 11th of August :)

Inspiration and frame hunt

This wedding makes me swoon! The peachy colors, the harvest season style, everything. Imagine exchanging the blue for purple...

On another note: we are looking for some nice old frames for you dear guests, just imagine the party portraits! Like this.

My guess is second hand stores in Jakobstad might have them. What do you think?

Suddenly, every guest became a Shakesparean star. Blogged by style me pretty. Go here for credits.

/Joanna

Ecumenical procedures & Wedding Preparation Committee

Today we have an interview at the catholic church in Helsinki. After that we will be free to get married in the lutheran church and our marriage will be recognized by the catholic church as well.

We met two lovely Finnish-Italian couples at the catholic pre-wedding course we began this winter. One of the couples came up with a brilliant name for our newly formed friendship circle; Wedding Preparation Committee. So far, the committee has met once for Peruvian lunch/dinner/extended hang-out. Today, a part of the delegation meet again for some well needed espresso at Ciao! Caffe.

Looking forward to it!

/Joanna

We make sure to fit the odd coffee in between work, studies and other projects.
This one enjoyed last weekend at La Torrefazione.

Crisp light & vintage birds

 We enjoy crossing a green area heading home from the metro station at night. Especially now with all the birds singing at night; everything intoxicated by spring. Still light around 10.30 pm, it's almost ridiculous!

Disclaimer: Fashion blog tendency warning begins here

Bright, blue, crisp nights. Just like the blue beach dress with birds and cliffs and waves that I got at a pop-up second hand shop at Karin's place around easter. Wearing a pair of  leather pumps thrifted at Valtteri for just a few euros as well (Yes, it was quite cold posing for this photo). Thanks Michelle for taking me! These white birds and pearls also come from the same pop-up event. Love them - might come in handy in August as well. As a cake topper, perhaps?

/Joanna

Lovebirds waiting for August. Pearls already in use.

Beach dress waiting for summer. Photo by Héctor.

Creative process

We spend the weekend making invitations before celebrating May Day and spring carnivals, Vappu. Héctor cuts and measures with great precision, care and attention. I am in ave. I'm better at the quick and artistic stuff.  However, the first batch went out today! Awesome! Just a few more tweeks and everything will be ready and set to go! We are very excited. The kitchen table has been turned into a funny arts and crafts-sweatshop. In order to fuel up a bit tonight, we tasted some chocolate goodies. Field research continues for the wedding reception...what a wonderful excuse to indulge a bit. Héctor is frying hamburgers now. And I will make some ribbons. The ones I made yesterday came out a bit crooked, was sleepy after a wonderful first of May picnic in great company.

/Joanna

Leftovers of two cutting procedures (top ones by Héctor, the lower ones by me)

Oh yummy!

Mexican delights

Our Fenno-Swedish-Peruvian wedding might get a Mexican touch! We have spotted a creative Mexican artist in Helsinki who might come up with something colorful and very lovely for you. Kikíkas cookie creations are awesome. Cheers!

Any's Mexican creations! Aren't they brilliant? Now, what shapes do we want :) ?

/Joanna 

Invitations: a myriad of ideas!

Hum, we are getting started!

Wedding invitations; there are so many ways to create them! It's like an ever expanding universe in itself. Still, I managed to pull out some ideas for a first version. I got really excited about it! We also realized it's a lot of work - but still very nice to make them by hand. This version even matches some of the roses picked out in March. Again, the roses are ment to match some details in the Peruvian dress. See, we are getting super coordinated! Don't worry though, you can still come dressed in normal hues and no need to color your hair purple either...

/Joanna

Mail from Peru!

On a pale winter's day, the box and I waited for the bus to take us home...the suspense!

I picked up a big box that crossed the Atlantic, quite a few kilograms of garment! This snowy and otherwise pale winter day got an exciting twist with a Siwa mail excursion in the afternoon. Good thing I was working from home this day - fetching the dress was very handy. I had to document the whole thing step by step. I remember the last few steps before entering in the department - seemed neverending, I just wanted to rip the package open! The dress was carefully wrapped  and it took me about 10 minutes to unpack it and unstitch the protective layer. And yes, it fits! Putting it on was magical. What a wonderful gift from Peru. Miles de gracias!

/Joanna

The dress is here! Happy dance!

We decided to have the dress done in Peru during a family vist in December. We had the dress shipped over the Atlantic and now it's finally here! Of course, Héctor hasn't seen it! It was very exciting for Joanna since she had only seen the dress once before shipping.

Joanna is on happy clouds today. These crafty pretties by Gosh & Golly.

/Joanna and Héctor

Cake heaven & ranunclus puffs

White orchids with ranunclus, gorgeous. Blogged By Style Me Pretty. 

Keep calm and eat a cupcake, that's how it goes right? Today I met our cake-baker, right after the florist appointment! I found the perfect one outside Jakobstad. Mouth-watering as well. A bit like being inside a reality show today: "Do you prefer light lilac or white ranunclus with the puffy roses? Should we go for lemon cream filling or raspberry jam?" Not bad at all. Ask me more questions like that, please! The wedding feels so close now! It is really happening! Here a few of the inspirational pics I brought with me.

Puffs with roses, ranunclus and hortensia caught my eye. Something for the tables, perhaps. Ours won't be pink though, no worries Héctor! Blogged By Style Me Pretty. 

Wedding blog open!

Hello dear friends, family, loved ones!

Welcome to our wedding blog.

This is a place for us to share our experiences and let you know what's up.

(We know one of us might go a bit over the top with decoration, flower, and other reception related topics, bare with us, we are excited!)

Cheers, lets enjoy the spring together,

Joanna & Héctor